United had dominated the opening spell and the wasteful Collin Samuel should have buried the ball in the ninth minute, latching onto Barry Robson's free-kick but weakly volleying into the arms of Roddy McKenzie from only four yards.
But against the run of play, the erratic Mike Tumilty gave the Pars a wonderful gift in the 17th minute with a very soft penalty.
Mark Burchill fell to the ground under a soft tackle from Alan Archibald, however the striker sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot but hit the outside the post.
There was another woeful miss by United in the 35th minute which had manager, Craig Brewster jumping with rage on the sidelines. Young Greg Cameron had laid the ball to the byline for Samuel whose cut back was blasted over the bar by Stuart Duff when he could have easily slid it in.
After the break, United moved up a gear and only an excellent stop from McKenzie prevented Noel Hunt from scoring in the 53rd minute against his old team, then in the next minute Scott Wilson cleared Duff's goalbound shot off the line.
As the pressure intensified, shots came in from all directions on the Pars goal but their defending was resolute and held on for an unlikely draw.